WHO I FISHED WITH: Jerry Morgan from Belton, TX, his cousin, Mike Morgan, and Mike’s wife, Charlotte Morgan, both from The Colony, TX. Jerry is retired and has been out with me three times now. Mike and Charlotte both work in banking and came out with me for the first time this morning.
Charlotte Morgan of the The Colony did very well on both white bass caught vertically, as well as on sight-casting to largemouth forcing shad to the surface. Note the plump belly on this fish. Most all of the largemouth we landed regurgitated multiple threadfin shad.
Jerry Morgan, possibly the biggest Atlanta Falcons fan in Texas (his son, Chris, is a coach for the team), caught white bass in the 0 to 3 year class all morning, helping put our tally up over 100 in just over 4 hours.
Mike Morgan was impressed with the numbers of fish Stillhouse gave up this morning and is looking forward to trying his hand at some hybrid fishing on Lake Belton next spring during the shad spawn.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 22 September
HOW WE FISHED: We began the morning downrigging to find fish and, once contact was made, used sonar to find the “center of mass” of the fish so we could then use the Spot Lock feature of the Ulterra to hold over these fish and jig vertically. Once the early murk cleared and the skies began to brighten through the clouds, schoolie largemouth began to work and gave away the location of the bait. We used this as a visual key to continue to find white bass with some “bonus” topwater largemouth to throw to for the remainder of the trip. Mike’s back gave him some difficulty, so he fished about 60% of the time, but, even so, we were able to put together a catch of 102 fish in just over 4 hours.
The majority of our fish caught vertically responded best to tailspinners with occasional highly active fish which were heavily grouped and up off bottom reacting well to 3/8 oz. slabs with the Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached. This same slab/stinger combo did the trick for topwater largemouth, too.
OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS: I’d not fished with clients since Monday, 11 Sept. after heading to New England for my 30th high school class reunion, then returning and conducting sonar training on 18 and 19 Sept. The sonar sessions still allowed me to be on the water and do a bit of scouting which did pay off today.
TALLY: 102 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Water Surface Temp: 80.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SE under 10mph
Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover slowly thinning to 70% cloud cover by trip’s end
Water Level: 1.16 feet low
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1993 downrigging to find fish, then working tailspinners to capitalize on the find
**Area 1994 downrigging to find fish, then working tailspinners to capitalize on the find
**Area 1995 sight-casting to largemouth and working vertically for white bass all from one Spot Lock location
**Area 1996 sight-casting to largemouth and working vertically for white bass all from one Spot Lock location
Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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